Take a Chance On Me
by CN Winters
Summary: Set after the Season Two finale when Jane shoots Maura's biological father and the fallout that ensues written before the Season Three premier .


"You were trigger happy!" Maura screamed at Jane as the two stood in her examining room.

"I reacted!" Jane grabbed Maura by the forearms.

She tried her pull away, but Jane's hold was too tight.

"My father wasn't trying to kill me! He saved my life and you shot him, Jane!"

"I was protecting you!"

Maura was crying and shaking her head. "I can't do this! Do you know how hard this is? W-when something like this happens, you turn to your best friend, but what do you do when it's your best friend that ripped your heart out? Tell me!"

Jane tried to pull her closer, but Maura refused and began to flay her arms. Jane only tightened her hold and pulled her to her chest as the woman strained against her. The detective kept her voice flat and even.

"We have to try to fix this because I can't live without you."

Maura stopped fighting and looked up at Jane, who held her tight against her.

"I can't be your friend anymore," Maura told her.

"Then don't be my friend. Be more," Jane replied.

The cop took Maura by the back of the head and placed a scorching kiss on her lips. Again, Maura flayed until she was able to pull away. Once she had enough space between them to move, her hand snaked out and slapped Jane across the cheek with such force the sound of the impact echoed through the room.

Both women seemed stunned by what had happened.

"H-how dare you try to manipulate me?" Maura challenged.

"I'm not manipulating you. I love you. I have for some time."

"That's a lie!"

"It's not and it wasn't until you put this wall between that it made my feelings all the more clear."

"Clearer," Maura corrected. "More clear isn't how..." Maura snorted. "Forget it. And for the record, 'Detective', it wasn't my actions that put up a wall between us. It was you! YOU shot my father!"

"And I'd do it again if I thought it meant saving your life," Jane answered softly, the fight drained out of her. "Even... even if you never talk to me or trust me again."

"You're insane," Maura muttered as she walked back to the body waiting for her on the slab.

"No. I'm in love," Jane retorted. "And your safety is more important than my happiness."

Maura hung her head and softly said, "Love; insane. It's the same you know? Feelings of love produce brain responses that mimic..." Maura sighed and muttered, "Just get out. You hate my 'fun facts' and I have work to do. I'll notify Korsak or Frost of my findings."

Realizing she wasn't getting anywhere, and hearing the doctor on the verge of tears, Jane did as Maura asked.

She left.

One week later...

"I just wanna talk. That's all," Jane said as she put half her body out of a high-rise window. A 'jumper' stood on the ledge and the only thing between the man and the concrete below was her voice. "Can I sit here please?"

The man didn't say anything so Jane took his silence as an invitation and worked her body half in and out of the window. She had an earpiece in her ear and a transmitter on her hip broadcasting her words to a command post below where, unknown to her at the time, Frost, Korsak and Maura all stood listening. A psychological expert was trying to coach the detective.

"Keep things positive," the psychologist told Jane through the earpiece. "Find a way to relate to him, if you can."

Seven floors above, the man told Jane, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay," Jane replied. "Can I talk about me then?"

"That's good," the psychologist coached her. "Let him hear how something got better for you in the past and how it will get better for him too."

Annoyed with the advice pouring into her head, Jane pulled the earpiece away, but kept the mic on her body. "Screw this," she said as she tossed the bluetooth to the concrete below.

"What is she doing?" the psychologist asked Jane's co-workers in a concerned voice. "She can't hear me now!"

"I think that's the point," Frost said dryly.

They all continued to listen to the conversation.

"W-Why did you do that?" the man on the ledge asked.

"I've got a pesky person on the ground telling me to talk about how life's gonna get better for you."

Jane gripped onto the sill and climbed completely on the ledge too.

Maura's lips immediately went to her mouth to stifle a nervous sigh as she listened to Jane talk to the man. They still hadn't talked since the week before when she demanded Jane leave her lab.

"W-what are you doing?" the man asked worried. "I'm not going in!"

"Relax! I'm not going to grab you!" she snapped at him. "Sorry. I figured I might as well come out here too if this is what happens to the brokenhearted. I mean, you are brokenhearted, right?"

He considered it. "Not exactly," he said.

"I am. The shrink on the ground wanted me to tell you that life's gonna get better for you, but it might not. Right now, my life sucks and I think it's hopeless. Obviously, you've got your own problems since, you know, hangin' on a ledge, but you wanna hear about my messed up life? It might make you feel better by comparison, and if not, then we can always just wallow in each other's misery awhile."

The man seemed intrigued now, more than despondent or worried. "Uh, sure."

"I'd tell my best friend all this, but there're two issues. One, I'm in love with her and two, she hates me now."

Korsak and Frost looked at each other and then at Maura. She didn't acknowledge their curious expressions. She just continued to look skyward at the two bodies on the ledge with a worried expression.

"So," the man replied, "You're a...?"

"Lesbian?" Jane finished.

"Yeah."

"No."

The man looked confused. "Uh, okay. I'm lost."

"I've never liked women, well, not like that. Not until her. And not until recently actually..."

"Oh." He nodded.

"You don't seem too shocked," Jane teased. "It's the outfit, right? Maura – her name's Maura by the way – she says I dress 'butch' but I think I dress practical. I'm a homicide detective so sometimes it means chasing and tackling bad guys. That's hard to do in stuff she wears, like designer skirts and heels."

The man grinned for just a slight moment.

"Well, attire aside," he said, "you look pretty femme to me." Then he added, "I have a cousin who's gay."

"Hence no freak out then?"

"No, not at all. But I'm wondering... this friend, Mona?"

"Maura," Jane corrected.

"Maura... is the reason you can't talk to her because she doesn't love you back?"

"I think she loves me. Or she DID, even if she never loved me the same way I love her... But yeah, she did love me at some point because I'm certain I was her best friend."

"Then what happened?"

"I did something she can't forgive – I shot her dad."

"Daaaaamn," he said.

"Yeah, I know. Bad move, huh?"

"Not the way I would win a girl's heart."

Jane snorted. "Yeah, well, what she doesn't realize is that I didn't do it for any other reason than to protect her. See, I thought her father was going to shoot her and me? He had a gun raised. He'd just shot another officer and from where I was standing, it looked like he was going to fire toward her so I... reacted, ya know? Hindsight and all that... I think she's right – I don't think he was going to fire on her. Me, well, that's a different story. At the time though, with all the commotion, the only thought I had was to protect her; keep her safe. Even if..."

"If what?"

"Even if that meant losing her forever because she'd hate me. Again, she's convinced he had no intention of hurting us, but like I said, from my vantage point, it didn't look that way at the time."

"Did you tell her that?"

"I tried, but she doesn't want to see me or talk to me. She said she can't be my friend anymore. I told her to be more than a friend and I kissed her."

Frost and Korsak both looked shocked at each other and turned to Maura who remained focused on Jane above them.

"What did she do?" the man asked.

"She slapped me," Jane said with a sad chuckle. "Yeah. I got a way with the ladies, huh?"

"It's kind of sad," the man began, "sounds like what you feared the most is exactly what happened... you lost her..."

"Yeah," Jane said despondently.

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be," the man offered.

Korsak and Frost both looked over at Maura, who now had tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, but the world still has her," Jane said trying to sound optimistic. "And the world's a lucky place because she's... she's so bright – smart, I mean. If you talk about anything, and I mean ANYthing, she'll have some statistic or little known fact about it that she calls up from memory. I call her my walking wikipedia, which she reminds me is not peer reviewed and can't be trusted." Jane smiled. "But it's more than smarts... there's this light around her too. She knows so much but there's almost a child-like innocence about things she sees everyday. She has all this knowledge, but the craftsmanship of her designer dress fascinates her. She sees death everyday. Many times at the hand of other people, but she still has this faith and... awe of what humanity can do, of what we can be..." Jane continued smiling, but then waved off the thought. "Anyway, you're right. What I feared most — losing her — that's what's happened... But I try to take comfort that she's still here to help people."

"She a cop too?"

"No. Some call her the Queen of the Dead since she's the chief M.E."

"M.E.?"

"Sorry, medical examiner."

"Oh."

"Yeah, she's helped me with a lot of cases and brought many people to justice... gave others some closure about their loved ones... So even if I don't have her anymore... like I said, the world does. Of course, if I owned the world, I'd give it all up to have her. I mean, even if she never loved me the way I realized I love her, I'd be happy to just have her in my life... But I don't own the world... and I don't think she's ever coming back."

The man on the ledge bit his lip.

"I'm sorry. I feel kinda dumb now being out here. I only lost a lot of money. But you, it sounds like..."

"I lost my world?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Jane gave him a sad grin. "Hey, why don't we go in?" she offered, her voice cracking. "I promise, no one's going to ambush you or anything. We'll just go inside and talk, okay? You can tell me about your money troubles and I'll tell you why Maura Isles is the center of my universe."

Without waiting for him to reply, Jane made her way in and then motioned him to follow. With a slight smile, he did make his way inside. A small course of cheers went up from on the street when he climbed into the room. Frost, Korsak and Maura, although happy too, gave a sigh of relief that Jane was back inside the building.

As she promised, Jane and the man talked for about an hour. He discussed about how the stock market ruined him and he didn't know how to face his wife. Jane went on about how much Maura meant to her. She convinced the man to go peacefully to the hospital and talk to some people there who could really help him emotionally. When they finally left the building, and she helped him into the waiting ambulance, he wished her luck with Maura. She thanked him and turned to see Korsak and Frost coming over to offer their accolades. After a couple of pats on the back, they moved away and she saw Maura standing there, silently watching her, her face unreadable.

Jane took three steps toward her, but the reporters began to crowd around, blocking her path. She was barely paying attention to them as she worked her way around them. She didn't acknowledge their questions. She only focused on Maura's now retreating form.

"Maura!" Jane called out when she was a few yards away and watched Maura dart into a nearby building. She then turned to the hoard of reporters.

"The department will be issuing an official statement soon everyone. That's all I have at this time."

She ducked inside the building too, while Korsak, Frost and three uniformed officers stepped up to block the reporters from following her. Jane's boots barely made a sound as she walked across the linoleum of the quiet office-building lobby. She followed the clicking of Maura's heels. She heard a stairwell door open and she raced to catch up. When she pushed the door open, she found Maura standing there alone; away from spying eyes.

"Just about everyone in the department, and the city... and once it goes viral, the entire world... heard what you said," Maura began.

"Well, I did say you didn't feel the same way about me. People won't think you're gay or that we're a couple or anything so you don't have to be worried about..."

Maura raced toward Jane and the detective steadied herself for another slap like the week before. She was pleasantly surprised when Maura captured her face and brought her down, ensnaring her lips in a passionate kiss. It took about three seconds, but Jane realized what was happening and snaked her arms around Maura, pulling their bodies closer together. Maura continued to demand more – more lips, more tongues, more skin on skin contact. She'd managed to push Jane against the wall and wrap one of her legs around the detective's. Jane's hand slid down to possess Maura's thigh and pull it tighter against her body.

They pulled apart, trying to regain their breath.

"I've never felt this way about a woman," Maura confessed. "I-I have no frame of reference for this."

"It's scary, huh?"

"Extremely," Maura admitted. "But it's... exciting too... Isn't it?"

Jane only nodded.

"Look, Jane. About my dad..." Maura began.

Jane released her slightly but didn't pull away. "I don't blame you for being mad. Hell, if the situation was reversed, I'd be beyond pissed."

"This is different," she confessed. "Your dad raised you. Patrick... he didn't raise me. He gave me up... But yes, it still hurts. I won't lie... however, in light of that, I'm sorry for shutting you out. I had to be mad at somebody and you were the closest target. There's so much going on in my head right now and it's already pretty busy up there on any given day of any given week. So all of this is just..."

"Then don't think," Jane told her.

"What?"

"Don't think." She reached up and cradled Maura's face in her hands. "Just feel," she added as her thumbs began to caress Maura's cheeks. "Tell me... what feels right?"

"You," Maura answered automatically and then smiled. "I've missed you, Jane, so much. The truth is... I've felt the same way about you too. Not having you around made me want you even more and in ways... I didn't before. To top it off, all these emotions I'm going through… these are the kind of things you tell your best friend, but... I can't."

"You can. You can tell me anything, always."

"Not some of the reactions, I've had lately. Part of me never wanted to see you again and other parts, like you said, made me realize just how much I love you. And more than just an associate or a friend..." Maura shuddered. "Today, when you were on that ledge... I was overcome with an unexpected case of apnea."

"Huh?"

"An absence of spontaneous respiration."

Jane grinned slightly. "You held your breath?"

"No, I literally couldn't breathe. My body forgot how to do it. I kept thinking what would happen if you fell; if that man pushed you; if... I lost you and... a part of me died inside." Maura began to shake her head. "I know how melodramatic that sounds, but that's how I felt and -."

Before she could continue, Jane silenced her with a kiss that began to grow in intensity rather quickly. When air was becoming an issue for both of them, they broke apart, but stayed locked in their embrace.

"Please come home with me?" Maura asked as she nuzzled against Jane's neck.

"You want to take me home?" Jane asked with a teasing sexy leer in her raspy voice.

"I want to take you to bed." Maura's hand lazily caressed over Jane's hip, across her stomach until it came to rest under her breast. Maura gave it a light squeeze for emphasis and said, "but only if you're ready."

Jane held her breath for a moment.

"Are you ready?" she asked, trying to ignore Maura's wayward hands for the moment.

Maura grinned as her lips occasionally nipped at Jane's neck. "Did you know 90% of the nerve endings that contribute to female orgasm are on the surface of the vulva?"

"I-I-I did not know that," Jane stuttered.

"It's true, and, if you let me, I'll show where they all are... first-hand."

"Really?"

"UmmHmm... I've been studying."

Jane snorted. "Is that so?"

Maura licked her lips and nodded. "I want to show you what I learned."

Jane paused two seconds.

"We're outta here," she said impatiently as she tugged a giggling Maura from the stairwell.

**The End **


End file.
